Thursday, January 8, 2009

The return of customer service??

Yesterday I went to set up the new TV that I had purchased, and discovered that it was broken. Well, not broken, but certainly defective. When you turn it on, it whistles... a high-pitched tone. It's not from the speakers, it's something... electronic. But it renders the TV unusable. What to do? Well, the box that the TV came in had a big label printed on it, with a phone number. "Tech Support," it said. It offered to help set up the TV if we couldn't, or to help us with problems. "Don't go back to the store, give us a call!" it said. So I called, but they were closed for the day.

This evening I called, and after one ring and a recorded "we record your call for training" message, got straight through to a human. I explained that I had purchased the TV two days ago, and when I turned it on it made a beep/whistle. She said, "Is it all channels and modes?" I said, "It's not the speakers, it's electronic, listen." And I held the phone to the TV.

"My, it shouldn't do that, should it?" she said. "Let me get your address and we'll have a replacement couriered over to you. Is Monday good for delivery?"

>blink<

That's it? No "send it in and we'll fix it, maybe, and get it back to you someday"?? No "bring it back to the store and deal with them"?? No "try all these diagnostic tricks that won't work before we'll have a tech call you back"?? Just "Is Monday good?" And a total of less than 10 minutes on the phone?

And this was the MANUFACTURER. Wow.

I'd post a link to their page, but it's one of those "small" brands, that does house-brand stuff, I guess. Like Medion, or that sort. The brand of TV is Neon, but I saw web references that say the same model is also sold under the Cello brand, but the phone was answered with another name altogether. Don't care, actually. It was a good price to begin with, but with customer service like this... wow.

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